Siren Song
by Lily6005
Summary: A girl arrives in Haven with a trouble, and nowhere else to go. After being stalked and her family refuses to help her, she has to find her own way with only one hint from her mother: Go to Haven, Maine. But she has a man obsessed with her because of her trouble. Because she has the Siren's Song. She thought she lost him on her journey North, but she doesn't know for sure. AU.
1. Chapter 1

A woman drove in the darkness. Though it was almost pitch black out, she hated having her lights on; she didn't want to be seen. Music was playing on her radio, but she did not sing along. She kept looking in the rearview mirror like she would see a car following her. She prayed a car was not following her. It was the reason she had barely stopped to rest over the last few days journey. It was the reason she slept in her car and kept a notebook at her side. She hadn't spoken since she left home. She couldn't speak, she was scared what would happen at home would happen here. She was scared that there would be many cars following her instead of just one.  
She drove until she reached the police station at dawn, and with her notebook in hand she walked in.  
"What do you need, ma'am?" Asked the officer at the front desk behind bullet proof glass.  
She wrote down six words and put the notebook against the glass.  
"Is there trouble?" He asked, lifting his sleeve to show her a tattoo. She didn't know what he meant by that, but she nodded. He understood, just like she was told they would.  
"Go straight back." He told her, truly looking at her now. She looked very young and very scared. Her blonde hair was in a messy braid down her back. She wore a sweatshirt with a school's name that he had never heard of on the front. She had on black square framed glasses. She was small, and her body hidden by the sweatshirt. She was definitely not from around here. Her face was not one that was easily forgettable. "The Sheriff's office is right down there."  
She mouthed the words, "thank you," before doing what he said. The door was open, but she knocked, announcing her presence. There were two desks in there. One had a blonde woman who was a little taller than her and skinnier than her with her hair and makeup done and made her feel like a slob. She was looking over a file with a pen poised between her thin lips. At the other desk sat a tall muscular man who was on his computer. They both looked up to see the girl.  
"Hi, can we help you."  
She held a finger up before taking her notebook, flipping the page and then writing in big letters, "Sheriff?"  
"That would be me." The man said, standing. "Sheriff Wournous."  
The woman looked at the other woman and frowned.  
"This is my partner, Detective Parker." He told her. "How can we help you?"  
She flipped the book over and wrote one word, "Trouble."  
"You can't speak?" He asked.  
She pointed to the woman and nodded, and then pointed to him and shook her head.  
"You can talk to her, but not me?" He asked.  
The woman nodded.  
"You have a trouble?" He asked. "Are you from around here?"  
She shook her head.  
"Did the guard bring you in?"  
She looked confused as she shrugged and shook her head.  
"Okay," he said. "How do you know it doesn't effect her?"  
The girl sighed before writing on her notebook and handing it to him.  
"She says her trouble doesn't effect women." The Sheriff said, but he said it like he was trying to convey more than what he said. "Parker, can you talk to her?"  
"Of course." Parker said, standing up. "Come with me." She gestured for the girl to follow her out as Nathan gave her back the notebook.  
She took the girl to an interrogation room and closed the door.  
"Thank you." The woman said.  
"What's your name?" She asked. "Please sit down." She took out a small notebook to take notes.  
"I'm…my friends call me Kat." She said.  
"Well my friends call me Audrey." She told the girl"When did your trouble come along?"  
"I was assaulted at work. The next morning whenever I sang men would follow me like it was a siren song." Kat laughed without humor. "My parents didn't even tell me it could happen. It ran in my mother's family."  
"But you can talk?"  
"I haven't tried to talk to a man since I started getting stalked. I don't want any more people following me around."  
"But does your speaking voice effect them?"  
"I don't know." Kat told her. "I stopped speaking, and when that didn't break the spell my mother told me to come here, that I could be helped here."  
"How did you get here?"  
"I drove from Georgia." I told her. "I graduated two weeks ago, and left my job two days ago."  
"Was there someone following you?"  
"Yes, a police officer named Harvey." I told her. "I worked for a newspaper, and they sent me to interview him after he got shot in the line of duty during a school shooting. He asked me to sing my favorite song and I did. He'd been following me around ever sense. I've never felt more terrified than being followed by a police car for a week and it's not for your protection."  
"Did he follow you here?"  
"I don't think so. I think I lost him around Virginia." Kat told her, though she looked out the window, as if expecting to see the man she seemed so frightened of.  
"Maybe we should find out if you can speak." She said. "But how long are you expecting to stay?"  
"I have no where else to go." She said. "My mother said I can't come home until it's under control. If I can't control it I will find somewhere to work here, I guess."  
"We do have a newspaper if you want to check out there." She said. "And a hotel up the road."  
"Do you have a gym here?" Kat asked.  
"Yeah." She said, looking confused. "But you can't live at a gym."  
"But I can in my car. I don't have that much money." Kat shrugged. "I can rough it. I'll shower at the gym. At least until I can get on my feet."  
"You mother told you that you can't go home but didn't give you money to get on your feet?"  
"I have a thousand dollars to my name." Kat told her, sitting back and crossing her arms. "I have a reasonably comfy back seat and all my worldly possessions in my car. I'll be fine."  
"Okay, but before you leave I want to see if you can talk." She said. "Do you know how to undo the siren's song trouble?"  
"I have to have sex with the person effected." Kat told her. "You can see why I'm hesitant."  
"If I bring a guy in here and you talk and they are put under your spell, will you undo it?" She asked.  
"Depends on what they look like." Kat replied.  
She paused. "Okay." She got up from her seat before looking at her. "What about recorded voice?"  
"They have to be in my presence for it to take effect. So recordings and phones don't let it work."  
"Good to remember." Audrey said. "I'll be right back. Do you want anything? Coffee? Water? Tea?"  
"Tea would be amazing." Kat said. "Thank you so much. I'm sorry I'm being like this. I haven't slept in the last few days."  
"I get it." She said. "And if you see that cop I'll give you my number so you can call me. If a cop from Georgia comes here, if you give me your number I'll make sure someone calls you if I don't."  
"I'll take you up on that offer." Kat told her. "Thank you."  
"No problem. Now, I'll be right back." Audrey left, leaving the girl alone. The next thing she heard was: "Who's willing to have a trouble tested on them? Don't worry, it can be reversed." Then there was silence. Out the door she heard talking and Audrey came in with a paper cup with tea inside, and put it on the table in front of her. Behind her was a man even taller than the first. His face was very long and he had tan skin. He had long dark hair pulled into a ponytail and deep set dark eyes.  
"I'm ready to be the guinea pig, I guess." He said, but he then looked at her. "Well, you're not from around here."  
Kat took the hot tea between her cold hands to warm them. "What makes you say that?"  
"Because I know everyone in this town." He said. "So what are you going to do to me?"  
"She just did." Audrey said. "Do you feel any infatuation with her?"  
"I mean, I'm wondering who she is, and what's going on. Does that count?" He asked.  
"I have a trouble with my voice. If I sang right now you would never leave me alone." Kat told him. "Got me in some trouble at home, so I was sent here to get help controlling it."  
"Trouble at home. Ha, that's funny." He said. "So how do you snap people out of it?"  
"We have sex." Kat tilted her head to the side, confused. "Audrey didn't tell you?"  
"No, she didn't."  
"Naughty, naughty." Kat took her notebook and wrote her number on the corner along with her name and her trouble and ripped it off before handing it to audrey. "If I don't get back to you within an hour or so I'm probably in the the trunk of a cop's car."  
Audrey handed me her card. "I'll call down to the newspaper and tell them you're coming around one this afternoon. I'll text you the address."  
"Thanks." Kat said. "I hope I don't have to stay here too long, for everyone's sake."  
"You don't have the worst trouble." Audrey said.  
"Yeah, we had one guy that kept killing relatives so he could keep on living."  
"Well, it's not that bad. But for me it's the worst." Kat told her. "Before this I was a singer and guitarist in a band that was just starting to get big in town."  
"What was it called?"  
"The Siren's Song, funnily enough." Kat laughed without humor. "By the way, I drive a dark blue Mercedes CLX three-twenty if you get any calls about someone being creepy in their car or something."  
"That's your car? I thought I was hallucinating when I came in." The guy said. "By the way, I'm Duke."  
"Kat." Kat said, shaking his hand. "Now, I gotta go. I'm going to go looking for a job this afternoon and I need to shower."  
"Do you know how to get to the hotel?" He asked.  
"Actually the gym. But that's what smartphones are for, right?"  
"What?" He asked.  
"She's sleeping in her car." Audrey said. "Roughing it."  
"Well, good luck with that. You don't seem like the type of girl to handle that long." He said.  
Kat rolled her eyes before closing them and swallowing the rude words she wanted to reply with before opening her eyes. "So nice to meet you. So happy I don't have to fuck you." She looked back to Audrey. "Thank you so much Detective. I'll see you around." With that the girl left.  
"What did I say?" Duke asked.  
"She hasn't slept in three days, give the girl a break." Audrey said. "So why were you here?"  
"Well…"


	2. Chapter 2

Kat got a month long trial with the gym there, meaning she did not have to pay a dime for the thirty minutes she worked out before taking a shower. She mostly worked out to try to get some of the nerves out. She showered and shaved to feel like she had some control in her life. She dried her hair and put on makeup to look presentable to her potential future employers. The newspaper was only the first place that she was going to look at. The next was a bar that she saw was hiring waitresses. She was sure the pay sucked, but she needed any money she could get. Then she put on slacks and a sleeveless blouse. Her blonde hair went halfway down her back in a golden curtain. She looked beautiful with her big blue eyes and full pink lips. High cheekbones and a bust that would give any man a heart attack.  
She knew she was beautiful. She had a small waist and a big ass and pair of breasts. She was sure that's why she got the job at the newspaper. She was sure that was why they only ever sent her to interview straight men and gay girls. She used it to her advantage. She could use her voice to her advantage, but she didn't want to deal with the outcome of having half the town all turning into their worst selves.  
She got a call from one of her friends, and she answered.  
"Are you okay?" Her ex-roommate/best friend asked. She sounded so relieved that she got through.  
"Hey, B. Yeah, I got in this morning. I just got out of the shower." Kat told her. "You know I can't tell you where I am."  
"I know. I just wanted to make sure you were safe."  
"I am. He stopped following me around Virginia." I told her. "I'll try to send you the audio links to put my voice over what you all record so you can send it to the record company."  
"Don't worry too much about it. But you also have some new lyrics to sing over the music." B told her.  
"I will. I just need to be careful about it. Too bad there's not a recording studio in town."  
"Wow, then you're in the middle of nowhere, aren't you?"  
"That's kind of the point." Kat told her. "I have to go, though. I'll try to call later with what's happened." She paused. "I love you."  
"I know. Hurry home if you can."  
"I will."  
"Love you too. Bye."  
"Bye." Kat whispered before hanging up. She shook her head, unwilling to process all that has happened. That can happen after she can afford to live. She's not there yet. So she made sure she was looking her best, and then she went to the address that Audrey Parker had sent her to get a job.  
She put her things in the duffle bag, and went out to her car. She shoved it in the back, and hung her towel on the passenger seat to dry. And she drove, her GPS telling her where to go. She made it there with ten minutes until one in the afternoon. She felt a bit of pride about that; even with her life falling apart she could still make it on time.  
She got out, taking a folder with her that held her resume and reference letters that she still had from professors, faculty of her college, and previous employers. She was going to get this job if it killed her. She did not double major with an English minor for fun. She knew how to write. She spent most of her time both in and out of her education writing.  
So she walked in, and the two men who shared a desk stood up right away. One was short and thin, the other was tall and was the widest around his belly button, but he carried his weight well.  
"I'm Vince." Said the larger man.  
"And I'm Dave." Said the short one.  
Kat shook their hands. "I'm Kat. Did Detective Parker call?"  
"She did, and she said you worked at a newspaper before you came here." Vince said. "Please sit down."  
She sat down in front of them, pulling out her resume and handing one to each of them. "I have two resumes but I'm afraid the rest of my references I only have one copy of." She told them.  
"I'm sure your resume will be enough." He said. "And you graduated a few weeks ago?"  
Kat nodded. "With two majors and a minor. Political Science and History for my majors as you can see, and an English Minor." She told them. "So that means I'm very good at research."  
"Good to know." Dave put down her resume. "Tell us about what kind of research you did through your college career."  
"In my freshman year I wrote my first policy paper on a proposal for affordable college tuition, for which I did research for on current policies. I also wrote a research proposal where I had to do research on sex trafficking in Panama. I wrote a history book about women in the twenty-first century. It may have been mostly fictional, but it was a lot of research into current events and I had to get a timeline of cause and effect. That summer I worked as a lifeguard and at the front gate of a waterpark.  
"In my sophomore year I did research on the Tea Party political group for a paper, as well as what caused it to be formed. I also had to research my astrological sign and what the constellation was in other nations. I took a fiction writing class and I had to have at least one single spaced, twelve point font of fiction to turn in each class. I also had to write a short story, as well as fictional news stories for my end of year project portfolio. I had to do research for literature I read in a literature class and those four papers. I had to do a research paper on what could have caused World War II. During that summer I had an internship and worked as a lifeguard.  
"In my Junior year I studied in Madrid, Spain, so I'm proficient in Spanish. During that time I mostly just lived, I didn't do much studying besides studying the country itself. In the spring I was back at my college and I took another literature class which at the end of it the class went to the UK. Also in my spring Semester I finished my History major and completed my senior seminar for that class where I wrote a twenty page paper as well as presented on women and the different gender roles in the nineteenth century around the world. That summer I had two internships, both paying less than minimum wage but I had a lot of experience."  
"In my senior year I finished all required classes for my English minor and Political science major, and then in the spring I did my senior seminar for my Poli-sci while working at the newspaper that I left a few days ago."  
They nodded, looking impressed.  
She handed them a folder of all the stories she had written for the newspaper, or helped write. "Here is my portfolio of stories."  
Vince took that folder, and began looking through it. "This is all very impressive, Miss Swann."  
"I try." Kat said. "I looked at the Herald online, and I take it that you both cover up the troubles to keep the government out of Haven."  
"You're a smart girl." Vince said. "We could use that."  
"I agree." Dave said.  
They both turned towards the girl. "Can you start tomorrow? We will pay you a thousand dollars per week."  
"Of course." She said. "Thank you so much." She was already planning to look at apartments now. That was the best rate she had been paid ever. "May I ask what kind of work you expect from me?"  
"We would like you to be here by nine in the morning and work until five. A usual nine-to-five job unless it's called for you to do more." Vince said. "Let's say, if there's a breaking story that we don't take, you will have to bother the police and witnesses."  
"I'm good at bothering people." Kat said.  
"That's good to know." Dave said.  
"But if you don't mind telling us, what is your trouble, just so we're prepared if something happens." Vince said.  
"I have a siren's song." Kat told them. "If I sing people become obsessed with me, and won't let me go. It caused some problems back home so I came here."  
"What kind of problems?"  
"I got a stalker and no one to help me."  
"And the Guard didn't find you?"  
"I have no idea who that is." She told him. "Can you tell me?"  
"Let's just say that they'll protect you if the need should arise." Vince told her. "You and your siren song."  
She nodded. "Okay, but what is it?"  
"It's for troubled people. People who aren't troubled sometimes have a problem with people who do, and when the police can't do anything, they do." Vince told her. "Don't worry, they won't do anything until you ask for their help."  
"Okay." She said.  
"We'll see you tomorrow." Dave said. "Get a feel for town, you're probably going to need it soon."  
"Okay. Do you have today's paper that I can buy a copy of?"  
"Take it for free, my dear." Vince said.  
"Looking for a place?" Dave asked.  
Kat nodded. "I'm not one for hotels or anything."  
"What's your kind of place?"  
"Somewhere I can see the ocean." She told him, a soft smile gracing her lips. "I used to sail all the time. I miss the smell of the ocean."  
They both smiled at that. They felt like it was the first time that she actually showed herself. She wasn't recounting her past life, she was recalling a memory of something she loved.  
"I'm sure you can find something with what you want." Dave said. "Have a good afternoon. Just tell us when you have an address, but besides that we'll go through the paperwork tomorrow to hire you."  
Kat stood, taking the paper. "Thank you both so much." She shook their hands.  
"Anytime my dear."  
Kat smiled before leaving. "See you tomorrow."  
"See you." They said in unison.  
"She seems like a sweet girl." Vince said.  
"She does. Hopefully this will work out." Dave turned towards his brother. "But did you have to bring up the Guard?"  
"Of course, I needed to find out how she found out about this place." Vince said. "And keep an eye on her. She's new and we know nothing about her. That could be dangerous."  
"She's twenty-one years old. She can't have too much baggage." Dave said. "Audrey said that there was a man who was stalking her back home because he asked her to sing before she knew her trouble was real. She didn't even talk at the station until Audrey tested her out."  
"On whom?"  
"Duke Crocker." Dave said. "He's acting normal. We're all acting normal."  
"Well, I still want to keep an eye on her here. She doesn't know the danger she could be in if she lets the wrong people know she's troubled."  
Dave paused. "Keep an eye on her."  
"I plan to."

XXXXX

Kat sat at the docks with a newspaper, pen, and cup of coffee she had bought on the way there. She was sitting on the dock at the end of the pier where she could see the ocean and feel the cold breeze on her face. Her hair was blowing in the wind, the light golden strands getting tangled in each other. She didn't care, she had the sea around her. The sun was setting, she didn't have much light left to find potential apartments.  
"What are you doing out here?" Asked a voice she recognized from that morning.  
She turned, looking over her shoulder to see Duke. "I like the ocean." She went back to circling and crossing out options. She crossed out options only if she knew they were too expensive, but hopefully by the end of the month she would have enough money to move into a decent apartment. She may even call her father and ask for some money if she was just a little bit off.  
She felt the footsteps coming up behind her. "Ever been on the Atlantic?" He asked.  
"Pacific and Gulf of Mexico." She told him. "I haven't have the privilege to sail on the Atlantic."  
"What do you sail?"  
"I've sailed catboats, catamarans, sloops, yawls, and then an old army T boat. Oh, also an old coastguard cutter."  
"What about navigation?" He asked, intrigued.  
"The old fashioned way, sadly. They only let us use GPS after we did everything by hand. I sometimes used radar."  
"Where did you sail in the pacific?"  
"Seattle area. Almost Canada." She smiled. "What about you?"  
"Oh, I've seen the world." He said, before pointing to the large boat beside her. "She's mine."  
"Lucky." She told him. "I haven't seen too much of the world, sadly."  
"Where have you been?"  
"Europe, Central America, North America, the Caribbean, the Bahamas. I haven't seen much of the world at all." She told him before sighing. "Now I don't know if I will. If the troubles don't end, my parents have my passport, they won't let me get out of the country."  
"And I thought my parents sucked."  
"My parents don't suck. They always cared for me physically. They gave me my education." She paused. "I wasn't able to finish."  
"I thought you said you graduated a couple weeks ago." He said.  
"That's not what I meant. I got my diploma, I got my ring." She wiggled her right hand that held a rectangle onyx ring with silver around it and for the band. "I mean, I was supposed to go to law school. I was supposed to make something of myself. I was only supposed to take off a year to make some money." She shook her head. "No, I'm not going there. I'm not telling my life story." She looked at him. "Tell me something about yourself."  
"Like?"  
"You're not a cop, what were you doing in the police station today?" She asked.  
"Parking tickets." He said. "I have a hell of a lot of those."  
"Well, I guess there are worse things." She said. "How do you know about the troubles?"  
"I didn't until the last year or so." He said. "It's kind of hard to hide them when I helped deal with a few."  
"I thought you were about to tell me that you were troubled." Kat told him. "I haven't met another troubled person."  
"Nathan is troubled—the sheriff that you met first. He's numb. He can't feel anything."  
"Oh." She paused. "I couldn't deal with that. I would rather have my trouble than his. I need to be touched to live."  
"How old are you?"  
"Huh?"  
"You're over twenty-one right?" He asked.  
"Yeah." She said.  
He stood and held out his hand for her to take. "You see the building behind us?"  
"Obviously. I'm not blind." She said.  
"That's my bar." He said. "Let me buy you a drink."  
Kat looked him over, almost like she was sizing him up, or looking for a reason not to trust him. "Okay." She took his hand and pulled herself up.  
"You clean up nice by the way." He said. "I almost didn't recognize you."  
"It miracles a shower can do." Kat said as they walked up the pier to the bar. "I did drive straight here, I was a bit of a mess."  
"And what are you doing with that paper?" He asked.  
"Looking for an apartment. I should be able to afford one by the end of the month." She said brightly.  
"I knew you shouldn't live in your car."  
She rolled her eyes. "No one wants to live in their car, Duke. It's just a way to save up some money."  
"That's not what I mean, I mean you shouldn't have to." He said. "I know what it's like to have to fight for things, and no one should have to. Especially when they're given no where to go."  
"Let me guess, you talked to Detective Parker." Kat rolled her eyes. "I can handle myself. It's not the first time I've had to make some hard choices. I'm young, I can handle it."  
"I'm sure." He said. "Did you get the job?"  
She nodded. "I did. I think they're doing me a favor though, so I'm going to have to work real hard to prove that they made the right choice. I'm not going to half ass this."  
Just as she said that a police car drove on the road past the building in front of them, and Kat froze, staring at it as it slowed down. Did he find her? Was he going to finish what he had started in Georgia? But then she saw the Maine plates and let out a breath. She was visibly shaking, and suddenly very cold.  
"Hey, you okay?" Duke asked, putting a hand on her arm. "You look like you've seen a ghost."  
"Something like that." She said. "But never mind that. You said you were going to buy me a drink."

XXXXX

Kat woke up the next morning in a bed. Her pants were off, but her underwear was on. Her bra was off but her shirt was on. She opened her eyes to find a body beside her, a heavy arm just under her breasts. She knew they didn't sleep together. She didn't know why she was in his bed. She had a perfectly good car out in the parking lot.  
Her alarm was going off on the bedside table, and she turned it off quickly so it didn't wake him. She was lucky her alarm started off soft before getting stronger, otherwise he would have been awake and she would have to plan another escape. She carefully took his arm off her, and got out of the bed. She reached for her bra, and took off her shirt to be able to put it on. She wanted to at the very least get dressed before he woke up. She didn't want him to see her bruises. While she was doing that, she heard a voice.  
"Have to go already?" He asked. "You're not hungover."  
She put her bra straps on her shoulders and when she was putting her shirt back on she turned around. "I don't get hangovers. Made me the envy of everyone at school." She reached for her pants. "But I have an hour to get to work. It's my first day. I can see myself out."  
"You know we didn't sleep together right?"  
"Yeah…but why am I on your boat?" She asked.  
"You were pretty drunk. I wasn't going to let you sleep in your car where anyone could get a hold of you. I saw how you tensed up at that police car."  
"Yeah, I'm not too subtle, I know." She sighed. "Thanks."  
"Any time, blondie."  
She laughed. "That was my codename at parties."  
"Codename?"  
"Yeah, like, when I was getting hit on and I didn't want them to have my name."  
"I don't even have your name. And I know it's not Kat, that's a nickname for something else."  
"It's what everyone calls me, but if you want my name so much, it's Katja. Katja Swann."  
"What I don't get a middle name?"  
"Rose." She told him. "Happy?"  
"Date of birth?"  
"You're not going to steal my identity are you?"  
"Fine, just give me the date."  
"August twenty-seventh."  
"Awesome." He said. "Remind me of this in about a week."  
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but okay." She said. "See you around, Duke."  
"Come back to the bar tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday and they won't make you work unless there's breaking news…which there won't be." Duke said.  
She smiled. "Okay, but you're not getting me drunk again."  
"Do you wanna saw six o'clock?"  
"Deal." She said.

XXXXX

She brought coffee for her bosses on her first day, arriving right on time with her messenger bag with her laptop inside so she could write whatever they wanted her to wherever they wanted her to.  
"We want you to write an article on yourself under a pen name." Vince told her.  
"And tell us what you want your pen name to be."  
"Rose Meyer, I guess." Kat said, using her mother's maiden name and her middle. "Okay, it'll take a few minutes. Anything else?"  
"We have a few obituaries to write if you would like to type them up." Dave said, handing her a stack of paper. "When you're done with this come back to one of us. We'll see what else we can do."  
"Deal." Kat said, going to an empty desk and pulling out her computer. She put her earbuds in her ears before she started working. She was done by noon with a smile as she emailed the stories to Dave before going up to him. "You should have the stories in your mailbox and ready to be put in tomorrow's paper." Kat smiled. "Anything else you need me to do?"  
Dave looked at her, impressed. "Well, you did that fairly quickly."  
"Well, I am good." Kat told him. "Anything else you want me to do? Get coffee, grab lunch? Write some more?"  
"Yeah, you can get us lunch." Vince said. "Just make an expense report."  
Kat nodded. "Gotcha. Where?"  
"Diner down the street. They know our usual just add yours onto it." Dave said.  
"Gotcha." Kat said. "I guess I'll be back soon." She took her computer off her charger and put it in her bag. "Just email me if you need me to write anything else while I'm out. Hopefully it won't take too long."  
"Depending on how many people are there, you'd be surprised." Vince said.  
Kat left, and walked to the diner down the street and ordered. Just like promised, they knew Dave and Vince's orders, and she just added on a grilled chicken sandwich for herself. She hoped it would be quick, she didn't like how people looked at her. She knew it was obvious she was an outsider, and she didn't want to stand out.  
So she sat at the counter and checked her emails with the WIFI they had there. She sent emails to everyone about her leaving because of a stalker—the only people that knew the whole story were her roommate and her family—and that she was safe. At least she hoped she was.  
She was honestly distracting herself from thinking about the night before. She was drunk, and of course if she was asked to sleep in a bed she was going to. She didn't understand why Duke asked her to, though. He didn't know her, and he shouldn't care about her in the least; she was a stranger. For all he knew she could be a mass murderer and he was her type of victim.  
Well he was her type of something, but she was not going there.  
Kat was blissfully in her own world, pretending that she was checking her emails for any other reason than the real one; she was waiting for a distress call from one of her friends. That he keeps bothering them to get to her…or an email from him…or a call from him. He only had her work phone before, but she was scared with what he could do with his resources. Everything is online and nothing is private anymore. She knew it was only a matter of time before he found her. The question was, how strong would she be then?  
She wanted to get a gun.  
Maybe that is what she would do that on the weekend unless Vince and Dave wanted her to work. She would work as hard as they needed her to. She was getting paid more than she ever had been before. She would do anything to keep that job…and she felt that if she continued doing her best, they were willing to pay her a thousand a week without knowing what working with her was like. She could only guess that they may give her a raise if she continued doing good work. They seemed impressed so far.  
So she grabbed their lunches, and brought them back before dividing their lunches between them and she went back to her chair and table.  
"There's a restaurant opening this weekend." Vince said. "We would like you to cover it." That was the moment Kat knew that they had been talking about her while she was gone. She hoped it was all good things.  
"Me?" Kat asked. She didn't think they would give her something like this yet. "When? Where?"  
"It's down on the water. We'll give you the address. It would be tomorrow night. You'll go eat the food, give it a review, talk to other tables and see what they have to say. But there's an interview with the family running the restaurant this afternoon if you want to take it." Dave said.  
"I would be happy to. When?"  
"Oh, you won't have to leave for half an hour, so finish your lunch and then you can go. Can we get the story by midnight Saturday night?" Vince said.  
"Of course." She said. "I guess most of the work will be done tonight and tomorrow afternoon."  
"I would hope so." Dave said.  
"But after the interview, you can go home." Vince told her. "We know everything will be done on time."  
She could hear a bit of a threat in that. "Front page news?"  
"You know it." Dave said. "So make us proud. Here's the camera." He handed her a professional looking black camera.  
"I will do my very best." Kat said, taking the camera. "You can count on me for that."  
"We are." Vince said.

XXXXX

"So, do you want to tell me a little bit about the food that you're serving your opening night?" Kat asked as their interview was ending. She was just with the head chef now, Mark. He was trying to flirt with the new girl in town while Kat was trying to keep things professional. It was working so far.  
"Are you the reporter coming to the opening?"  
"Yes sir, I am." Kat said. "But if I know what I'm eating before I can be much more descriptive."  
"Then tell you, I shall." He said, before going into almost every ingredient he put in to the appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Kat was recording the conversation on her phone, knowing she would have to pick and choose what she was going to put in the article she would be writing that night.  
"Chocolate for dessert, a man after my own heart." She laughed, writing a note on the notebook in front of her. She had little notes beneath the questions she had worked on with Dave and Vince as well as the ones she came up with herself.  
"Well, I try." He said. "And we're pairing wine with the courses. Chardonay for the appetizer, a Bordeaux for the entrée, and port for the dessert."  
Kat made a note. "This all sounds amazing. Thank you so much. Are there any final things you want me to know before I begin writing?"  
"Just that I am looking forward to this restaurant becoming a part of the community." He said.  
Kat took her phone and took it off record. "I will make sure to put that in at the very end to leave the reader with something special." She told him. "Thank you so much for meeting with me."  
"Anytime, Rose." She had given him her middle name, so when he read the article he would recognize the name. "You're always welcome."  
"You will see this in the Sunday paper." Kat told him. "Hopefully the first review you see, unless, you know, you look on Yelp."  
"I'll make sure it's the first review I read then." He said. "Will you be bringing a plus one tomorrow night? Just so I can make sure that we have enough tables."  
"I don't know." Kat said. "Maybe, I really don't know."  
"Trust me, I know. I'd remember a face like yours."  
Kat laughed. "Of course. Well, thank you, Mark, again. I will see you tomorrow." They both stood up and she shook his hand.  
"I'm looking forward to it." He said. "If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask."  
"Trust me, I won't." Kat told him, before leaving the restaurant.  
She went to the gym then, to work out and then shower before she met with Duke. She had a while before she said she would meet him, so she worked out for an hour, and while she was cooling off she started typing up her article. This was easy work for her. She planned to mix in the review with the article about the restaurant. She kept spaces and wrote in bold what she planned to add the next day before taking a shower.  
She hated showering in flip flops. It reminded her of dorm showers and squeaky old beds. Having sex on those wasn't the best experience in her life. But it was better than after moving into an apartment with her best friend/bandmate/roommate having her trouble activated. Her life was ruined then.  
She wasn't going to be able to go to law school. She wasn't going to be able to get any more education, or travel outside the country. She would need a co-signer, and neither of her parents would agree, meaning that her family would not help her. She would have to do with her Undergrad until her trouble was over. She tried not to think about her wasted potential. She tried not to think of what she thought her life would be. She tried not to think about the event that caused her trouble to activate. She tried not to think about the bruises on her body that were still black in places. She was surprised that Duke didn't mention them that morning. He had to have seen them. The ones on her arms and face had healed except for her wrists. The ones on her thighs and torso had not.  
When she got out of the shower she put on cream to help her bruises heal before she put on her jeans and tank top. When she looked at them she had to remember that she was not back there in his home. That would be the last time she ever would interview someone at their house, if they were wounded or not. She would not be taken like that again. She would not be hurt like that again.  
She hit her fist against the bench her things were on before standing up, breathing hard. She didn't know how to deal with this. She needed therapy, or something to hit. Maybe she should take up boxing or something, then she could hit something without actually hurting anyone. Then she could get her anger out and maybe not fear every time a police car would turn down the street she drove or walked on. Maybe then she could free herself.  
But that was a dream.  
She put on her makeup carefully, trying to cover the green and yellow that was still slightly present on her left eye and jaw. She was good at covering up bruises by now. She was good at lying about things that had happened.  
Her phone rang at five o'clock, just as she was beginning to layer her foundation. It was Audrey Parker.  
"Hello?" Kat asked, putting in head phones so she could keep putting on her makeup.  
"Hi Kat, it's Detective Audrey Parker. How are you today?"  
"First day at work, so you know, pretty good." Kat told her. "Is there anything you need?"  
"I was just calling to check up on you, and wondering if you wanted to give a statement about your attack." She said.  
"No, there's nothing that can be done about it." Kat told her. "There's no use."  
"We have a psychologist who could take your statement here." Audrey said. "We could make it for after you get off work on Monday."  
Kat paused. "Only if you tell me what brought this on."  
"If we can figure out what exactly triggered your trouble, we could help you control it." Audrey said.  
"Then why didn't you push me more yesterday?" Kat asked  
Audrey paused.  
"Duke told you, didn't he?" Kat sighed.  
"He may have mentioned some marks when you were getting dressed."  
"First, I would like to say that I did not sleep with him. I was drunk and ended up sleeping in his bed." Kat paused. "That actually didn't sound much better."  
"I know." Audrey said. "And I'm the one that asked, I live above the Gull. I saw you walking to your car with him this morning, and you last night at the Gull."  
"I'm fine, Audrey." Kat told her. "It's nothing I can't handle."  
"You say that, but I can tell you from experience that troubles get worse the more you hold them in. It may turn into your voice putting people under your spell, or your laugh, or a sigh. We don't know until it's too late."  
Kat paused. "I'll be there Monday afternoon between five fifteen and five thirty."  
"Thank you, Kat." She said. "I'll see you later."  
"Okay, bye." Kat said, but she was seething.  
She finished her makeup, and grabbed her bag. She had a man to yell at. A man who was more than a head taller than her, and who could probably bench press her, but she was going to yell at him anyway. He had no right to tell anyone about her. He didn't know her. He wasn't her friend, or if he was, he wasn't close enough to do what he did. He never even asked her himself, and that knocked him pegs below where he was the day before.  
She drove to the Gull, not even using her GPS this time, and got out of her car, before reaching back to pull on her leather jacket. It was June. It shouldn't be this chilly at night. She marched up to Duke, who was on the deck.  
"Wow, you're early." He said when he spotted her. "I pictured you as someone who was on time."  
"You told Audrey about my bruises." She said, trying to keep calm. "We had a little chat this afternoon."  
He scrunched up his nose before sighing. "I told her not to tell you about that."  
"Why didn't you bring them up to me?" She asked. "Why not ask me for the story behind them?"  
"Because I can already tell what they were from." He said. "And I'm sorry, but you need to tell someone about it, and I know it's not going to be me."  
Kat took a step back. "When did you see them first?"  
"When you bent over last night and your shirt rode up. I didn't see all of them until you stumbled into the bed last night." He told her. "I wasn't going to touch you anyway, but that…I couldn't imagine."  
"You didn't even ask about my face. I know you could see them on my face." She said. "You could have warned me."  
"Yeah, that might be true." He said. "But take it from me, troubles get worse when you deny them."  
"I'll remember that." She said. "I'm still mad at you."  
"Then let me make it up to you?"  
"Why? Because I'm a broken doll?"  
"No, because you told me two minutes that we met that you were glad you didn't have to fuck me." He said, grinning. "I love it when girls try to woo me like that."  
Kat laughed. "You're ridiculous."  
"It'll be our little secret." He said. "Now sit down, I'll get you a drink. I have a proposition for you and I want you to actually listen."  
Kat sat down. She didn't blame him that harshly after she calmed down. He didn't want the town under her spell; she didn't want the town under her spell. He had a method to his madness, or asshole-ness. She could work with that, especially since they had a similar end in mind.


End file.
